Seasons To A Child
by UnagiKeki
Summary: Cute series of vignettes about Gai and little Lee, discovering the world together like father and son... Non-yaoi, only adorableness!
1. Asa

**Author's Note: This is NOT, I repeat NOT intended to be Gai/Lee. Turn away now if that bothers you; only wholesome father-and-son-ish cuteness is contained herein.**

**I'm operating on the idea that Lee was somehow orphaned as a child...god, I wonder what his parents would have looked like? *shudder***

* * *

_One- Asa (Morning)_

Having followed the small sounds across his apartment, Gai pauses in front of the pantry. Munching sounds. Hmmm… It is a rose-colored morning in Konoha, and it's resident Green Beast is clad in only fuzzy, polyester pajama pants, sunlight spangling over the rippled muscles of his torso. Regarding the door very seriously, with one hand around his chin, the sable-haired man pokes open the cabinet with one toe.

Busted. Glancing up innocently, little Lee stops chewing for a moment.

"…Have you been here all night?"

"You told me I could come over when I felt like it," the boy responds succinctly. The four year-old child, who is seated flush on the linoleum floor, envelops another scooped palm full of cereal from the box in his lap, spilling flakes onto the floor as he imitates the sound of a vacuum cleaner. There are scratches across his left cheek, stopping a half an inch below his wide, crow-black eye.

Gai steps back to survey the single front door, still locked, and the unopened window over the kitchen sink. "Wait- how did you get inside?" he asks.

Lee politely attempts to swallow most of his mouthful of honeycombed sugar particles before replying, but some still dribbles out of his little cheeks when he speaks: "I came in through the bathroom window."

"Lee, I live on the second floor."

"Yeah, I know," the boy says cheerfully; another handful of flakes die noisily between his shiny, even milk teeth. Gai is forced to regard the child for a long moment, one flat hand knowingly caressing the smooth, downy blackness of his bowl cut. He's not sure what to do.

"… Well, c'mere and let me get you some milk," he finally says. He watches little Lee patter across the entire four-feet of kitchen space, over to the dilapidated folding couch Gai has had since his Chunin days, and climb sagely into a space that seems to have been his for eternity. Snatching two bowls from the upper cabinet (Gai cannot abide by a messy kitchen) and the quart of milk, the elder Shinobi saunters after him and is seated; the weight of his presence bends the entire couch into a depression, which Lee and several other miscellaneous objects, like the remote, roll down into with Gai. Now plumb against the man's side, Lee's eyes hungrily follow the motions of the man's sophisticated milk-pouring and cereal-dumping skills.

"So how did you climb up the side of the building?" Gai hands Lee a bowl without effect, and prepares one for himself as well. Normally he'd eat it straight from the box, too, but today he has a guest.

"Got up on a parked bicycle, and found a brick to hang onto," the child begins. His braid bobs against his neck as he chews. "Then I got up into this flower box and scooched up onto the window thing. Something broke under my foot, but I'm okay."

"I'm glad," Gai says, leaning over towards the window. Yes, his landlady's planter box is hanging in mangled pieces from the cheery red of the brick wall; globs of potting soil and the small faces of purple and yellow pansies dot the sidewalk below. The framing around the top of her window is also mysteriously loosened, as if a great weight had been put on it.

"Tell you what…I keep a key under the mat. You can use that from now on."

Lee swallows. "I can come back?"

"Of course." Silence for a while. Gai snorts, and mucus wheezes in time with Lee's small breaths until he sniffs, quietly, into his shirt's beige sleeve.

"That's good," the little boy finally pronounces. "Missus Gai Sensei won't mind?"

"I don't have a wife, but if you see any possible ones, you should bring them back here on the double, okay?" Gai notes sardonically. When Lee grins, the man elbows him in the side; the smile becomes a giggle, and then Lee lolls his cherubic head to the side, leaning his cheek against the man's side. Gai's chest flushes warm; he stiffens at the touch, but isn't as weirded out as he thought he'd be.

"I love you, Gai-sensei."

"Hmm," the man huffs, his cheeks aching as a long-caged thing stretches across his cleft face. He ruffles the boy's hair with one hand, and holds the cereal bowl to his lips with the other. There are no spoons in the apartment.

"You're pretty loveable yourself, kiddo."

* * *

**A/N: Hang in until the third one! It's so cute! . God, I want to be adopted by Gai-sensei...**


	2. Shinu

**A/N: Oh, thank god: you're still reading. Don't love Little Lee yet? You will- just wait.**

* * *

_Two: Shinu (Death)_

Lee's face is tucked against his caramel knees as he squats in the center of the cracked sidewalk. Laundy lines hang down the alleyways 'til kingdom come, flapping with wet sounds in the soft breeze. The boy suddenly pops up, screaming and holding his left middle finger aloft.

"LOOK, SENSEI- a ladybug!"

Smiling, Gai jogs down the concrete and kneels beside the little boy. Lee's bright, fresh eyes are like midnight suns, deepest charcoal but full of unspeakable light, and laced with baby-fine eyelashes; his young face is long and dimpled slightly, with smooth pebbles for cheekbones as he smiles with wonder. Lee is not going to be a very handsome teenager.

The insect orbits the boy's knuckle warily, seeming to test this strange landing place. It shines so brightly it could be varnished, the color of a ripe tomato with delicate white spots painted on it's miniscule head just-so by the gods. Spring is coming to the Hidden Leaf Village; pink zinnias nod their heads in the square of dirt that the landlady has salvaged, looking towards the bottle-blue sky. The air smells of white-washed sunlight, of new beginnings and the thawing of things long frozen.

… And then Lee sneezes.

Gai was so at peace that he almost forgot that children can create crisis anywhere. A long whimper suddenly comes from Lee, who climbs down onto his gravel-scabbed knees and regards the ground morosely. "I dropped my ledibaa…" he begins whining. "I dropped her…"

The boy's eyes catch something. Lee pokes something gently, once, twice; and then announces, "It's dead."

All the man can do is blink. Lee continues to crouch on the ground, staring at the sidewalk, with Gai staring at him. The old woman at the magazine stand regards them, gangly Jounin and squat, adorable child, with a twist of her lip. The wind whistles above the Shinobi tenement apartments, lying in configured squares and jutting rectangles until the white-brick path ends. Lee sniffles, quietly at first; then wipes his nose with the back of his hand.

"Why do things have to die?," he asks of his guardian.

Gai has no idea what to say; he gets the feeling that the fragile mental development of this child is resting in his hands, and that saying the wrong thing could turn him into some sort of whack mobile like Orochimaru when he grows up. Gai's not sure how to talk to kids, even if he's been a sight better than Kakashi or Asuma at it. The Sandaime said that Gai would get too attached to his Genin; he was a naturally fathering type, the old man could tell.

He stands the boy up without looking down; Lee's small, warm hand finds the bear paw grip of his own instinctively, and folds entirely within Gai's long, calloused fingers. They stare at the ladybug for a while, big man and little man, side by side in a world that isn't very understandable at times.

"… I guess so new things can be born." he finally answers.

Lee is quiet for a long while; he leans his head against Gai's thigh, a habit he's picked up when he's thinking. Gai can feel the boy's little brain whirring between their skins, trying to accept one of the many truths of this lifestyle that will soon become so natural to him that Lee won't even think to ask. For the mind of a child, untainted and unknowing of the cruelty of existence- what kind of world will be waiting for this sweet little flower of youth, Gai wonders. He wonders.

It's been forever since he wondered.

And suddenly, Gai feels Lee's little face jerk up into a smile. The night-haired child points, mouth open, before thundering down the sidewalk in his green flip-flops.

"Then we've got to hurry, Sensei!" he calls, full of mission. "Let's pick these flowers, so more new ones can come up!"

One side of Gai's face burns with humor; and then he takes off after his little roommate, hoping he can save the landlady's petunias in time.

* * *

**A/N: I'm working on the concept of repeating themes; I like the connection, and it actually makes a dumb story sound remotely profound. Just what I need, huh?**

**More Lee to come! Stay tuned!**


	3. Pecha?

**Author's Note: Can you not see this in your mind? You can't? Try. **

**K+ rating for mention of man-breasts.**

* * *

"Sensei, why do you have pointy boops?"

The addressed Jounin freezes in place, his hand still arcing towards the sink. He is washing his and Lee's pair of dishes and sauce-stained take-out chopsticks in a comfortable pair of black sweatpants, and nothing else. The ventilation in this small dorm bothers Gai, so he tends to wander around shirtless when home.

Little Lee is seated at the miniscule 'breakfast bar', on top of a box of bodybuilding magazines with his head tilted adorably, questioningly. After his mentor fails to reply, the boy repeats his inquiry.

"I heard you… " the man says slickly, making a belated face. "What do you mean?"

"Those." Lee prompts, and points with a sticky finger to the aforementioned features on his sensei's bare chest. "Your pointy boops."

Oh, no. Red sirens were firing behind Gai's thick bangs; danger, danger, abandon topic...

"Um, Lee…boys don't have 'boops'." the man finally settled, uneasily.

Lee's face folded, blanched. "Gai-sensei is a woman?"

Dead. Quiet. Gai drilled his fingers on the gray countertop for a second, and then found a dish towel. Drawing this quickly over his exposed skin, the elder laughed falsely. "No, no- Lee, only girls have to cover their boops. You're not even supposed to notice boy boops."

"I thought boys didn't have boops?" the boy parroted, tilting his head again.

"No, they don't- I mean, we've got different boops. Boys don't have to cover their boops. It's socially accepted. Understand?"

"No."

"Good," the man said, wiping down the counter between them with a hairy sponge. "You need to go brush those shiny teeth, now. We're going to the grocery store."

"Okay," the little child smiled, sliding down from his perch and leaving Gai standing in the miniscule kitchen. After blinking dubiously for a few moments, the man craned his head around the wall. "Lee, do you even know what 'boops' are?"

"No," was the boy's foamy reply, followed by a deep-throated expungence of toothpaste. The sounds of vigorous gargling drowned out Gai's tiptoeing towards his chest of drawers. Time to buy some T-shirts.

* * *

**A/N: XD**


	4. Kaeru

**Author's Note: Umm...hi. Hope everyone's having a nice life.**

**Why do they call it Spring Break if you spend it doing nothing but worrying and catching up work, I wonder?...**

* * *

"I have to leave on a mission tomorrow."

"Oh." Lee says, still regarding his piece of drawing paper. His small face is lit by the blue light of the small television, where Doraemon-like cartoon characters are dropping anvils on each other's skulls in tune to lively music. Crayons are scattered across the floor, but all within Lee's reach; he is using the black one.

Gai watches, languidly, some sort of dog take a deathly blow from a piano hoisted out of sight, his arms crossed. His big frame nearly fills the doorway, as he leans against the living room entrance.

He'd thought it would be different, for some reason. "Okay," he calls, and turns to resume packing his bag, sitting lonesome on the bathroom counter.

"Okay," Lee replies. The pink corner of his tongue pokes out as he examines the picture, his comical eyebrows bowing. Lee reaches for the green crayon and begins coloring intently.

----

"You'll stay with my friend Kurenai until I get back, okay?"

"When?" Lee asks dissatisfiedly; the coiled sleeping bag and change of clothes dwarf his small form. From the top of his shining, raven hair to his suntanned to the wriggly toes in their thronged sandals, Lee seems very small all of the sudden- and while he hardly seems concerned that Gai is leaving, the distance opening between them already burns in Gai's chest. He wishes Lee would cry, so at least he wouldn't be the only one worried.

"Until Friday night."

"…" Lee makes no moves for comfort.

"Okay," the man says, nodding to Kurenai. He steps away, slightly despondent.

"Okay," Lee says. "Oh- Gai-sensei."

Eyebrows raise. Lee closes one eye tightly and screws open the side of his mouth, revealing his spotless smile, and lifts one dramatic thumbs-up towards his mentor. "Look in your bag, okay?"

"Okay," Gai says again, and turns his back swiftly to keep Kurenai from seeing the tear welling in his eye.

----

He forgets to open his pack until they've trekked all the way to the Amegakure border, and only then when the Shinobi bed down for a restless sleep just before dawn. As he unfolds his own colorless bedding, a folded piece of paper rolls from the slippery fabric. Gai picks it up carefully, his teammate's trustless eyes searching for danger in anything.

Scrawled in the center of the paper, amidst dapples of red that are supposed to be ladybugs and pink splotches for flowers, is a tall figure drawn entirely in green- even his large eyebrows and full, toothy smile. A smaller green figure floats by it's side, it's over-long arm connecting in a scribbled knot with the larger one's three-fingered hand.

"Come home soon, sensei" is written in big, blue letters across the raggedy, sea-green grass in Lee's picture, right next to a black squiggle that's supposed to be a doggy.

* * *

**A/N: And yes, they WILL be getting a doggy. XD Stay tuned...**


	5. Inuko

**Author's Note: This reminds me of my tragic, day-long possession of a dog I named Arthur...except he escaped under 'mysterious circumstances' and I'm afraid to ask my mother if she saw him hit by a car or something. I was around six, so I'd rather just believe he found his way home or something optimistic...**

**Anyway, if you like puppies- check out my NejiTen ficcy entitled _Puppy Love_. You could even look at it if you just want to read about Neji being mildly annoyed with life, since untrained doggies have a way of making your life miserable. **

* * *

Gai lowers his burden of plastic bags against the wall; unclips his sandals in one swift gesture, and moves on one foot to remove his bulky Jounin jacket. He pauses in mid-movement, however, when he spots Lee sitting, clean and looking very guilty, on the couch. With a dog.

Gai stares; Lee and the puppy stare back, their shiny-black button eyes remarkably similar. The dog has thick little legs, the body shape of an untwisted circus balloon, and a tightly-curled tail; it's white face features two tawny dots that resemble, disconcertingly, eyebrows; it does not look very smart. The combination of these elements, besides it's docked ears, add up to the tragic kind of cute that gives you cavities. "… Lee?" Gai prompts, still wondering what the thing is doing in his…their, apartment. Lee effectively lives here; already he's received mail.

"I'll take care of it and feed it every day," the boy says rushedly.

Gai's expression remains dubious. "Where did it come from?"

"I'll walk him even when it's dark and snowing," Lee answers. His little, tan hand finds the creature's spine and scratches. The creature goes into a seizure of glee at the stimulation, it's little eyes welding closed in resemblance to a simplified anime character.

"You're still not telling me where it came from."

Silence fills the single room for some time- before the puppy gets up, wagging it's cinnamon-bun tail sweetly, and strolls up to the massive trees of Gai's shins. It sniffs his bright legwarmers and bare, hairy toes for a moment, snuffling it's adorable little nose at the amalgamation of smells that make up a Gai-sensei. And then it moves on to the heap of Gai's jacket, which the doggy proceeds to lift it's leg on.

Gai is not amused, and looks scornfully upon his little roommate; Lee merely grins in that way that's impossible to say no to.

"Let's call him Youth-Dog," he says.

----

Youth-Dog was apparently born with an identity crisis; he answers to no name, and simply stares at one when they try to discipline him. Within the first few hours of his arrival, Youth-Dog urinates on the carpet four times, takes a large hunk out of the corner of the couch, and runs into the hall wall twice. Lee responsibly sets down water and some take-out chicken, and plays with the animal until Gai suggests that they preempt any more 'accidents' by taking a walk. From the matchbox-sized patio, Gai watches the pair march up and down the pavement in front of the building. They have no leash, so Lee has a shrunken green jumpsuit of Gai's tied by one sleeve to the dog's neck; he holds the other, the legs dragging across the dusty ground.

Both of them are much too cute to be thrown to the wayside; as he watches their parade Gai wonders who could have done just that, while at the same time reflecting on his luck that somebody did.

----

But then the evening comes, and Gai begins to rethink his earlier sentiments.

Dogs, apparently, do not follow any conventional sleep schedule. The puppy insists on flouncing through Lee's futon, and the pair are amusing to watch for some time; but when Lee lies down the dog attacks his head good-naturedly, leading to a miniscule amount of blood and a few tears. Gai pats alcohol on the boy's hair and slaps a Band-Aid over the spot, but Youth-Dog is just warming up. It pitter-pats around the apartment in the dark, edging Gai into a sleepless paranoia as he listens for liquid; Lee offers to take him out on the jumpsuit-leash, carrying a waterproof flashlight under one arm. Gai says nothing about the flowers that hang from Youth-Dog's mouth when they return, and even remains silent when the creature begins mock-attacking the alarm clock. Having bitten through the plastic button, Youth-Dog insists on going out for a stroll again; combs Gai's hair with it's teeth once the man has fallen asleep, and begins jawing on the couch again. The dog is asleep by dawn, having woken Gai up roughly forty-five times in the night; he leaves the animal flopped across Lee's body when the doorbell rings at 6 a.m, a friendly visit from the landlady to complain about her uprooted flowers.

Youth-Dog knocks down their neatly-folded bedding; Youth-Dog overturns Lee's cereal bowl in his lap. On his afternoon walk, the jumpsuit finally gives out, and Gai and Lee are forced to chase the wily puppy for nearly an hour, a single green sleeve knotted around it's fluffy neck like a windsock. Youth-Dog caps off the day by leaving a 'gift' of appreciation in the corner of the room, after the threesome return from a long, tedious walk to the pet store in search of a real rope. Gai is ready to suggest that the puppy take a nap in the oven, but Lee follows it around with the spray-cleaner bottle diligently, nothing but love in his stern expression.

Youth-Dog cannot sit, stay, or jump through a hoop by Monday, despite Lee's egregious training. It's favorite activity becomes staring at the wall, when it is not actively trying to open the refrigerator. He and Lee get no sleep over the weekend, which stinks because Gai has an S-rank mission looming. Lying on his back that night, listening to Lee's exhausted sleep-breaths and Youth-Dog barking at the curtains, Gai considers the reality that there is an enemy he cannot face down- and it isn't even housetrained. Never before in his life has he so doubted his own abilities to care for meaningful things.

----

He opens the door the next morning to find a young man of about thirteen standing, grinning with the glee of someone who has slept well for some days. He's here for his dog, he tells Gai; he saw Lee 'walking' Youth-Dog down the street this morning, just trying to keep his feet under him when the creature spotted the magazine store owner's cat.

Lee is seated, cross-legged, on his unmade futon, sleep-rumpled and looking entirely innocent. The teenager steps into the apartment and claps; Youth-Dog flounces from Lee's lap with all of his claws, and jogs over to his master. There are promises to stroll by their house, appreciative thanks to Lee for taking care of the lost creature all weekend, covert apologies to Gai because the bags under his eyes reflect the animal's troublesomeness and tepid acceptances of these sympathies; but then boy and hound depart, leaving the apartment as quiet as it was before Youth-Dog. Suddenly this lack of noise is alien; their lives have changed irrevocably in two days, and Gai isn't sure if it's for the better or worse…until Lee looks up from picking the clumps of hair from his shirt, and solemnly says, "Is that what taking care of me is like?"

The firm resistance melts. "No," Gai tells him, allowing his shoulders to relax and his face to untense for the first time since he saw the puppy. "No, of course not."

Little Lee stares at the door contemplatively, gnawing on a hangnail. " 'Cause I wake you up at night sometimes, and I spill things on the carpet, too. I wet the bed sometimes. I am like- do I make you frustrated?"

Gai is quiet for a moment, leaning one burly shoulder against the wall; Lee seems startled by his silence. "Yes," the man finally mumbles. "You keep me awake some nights, because I'm scared to sleep in case you stop breathing. You dropped chocolate milk on the floor once, but I didn't have anyone to drink chocolate milk with before that. And if you didn't pee in the bed, I'd probably never wash the futons or buy soap- so no, Lee. It frustrates me to think that I lived so long without loving and caring for someone this way. You're always teaching me something new, and to be honest, I've never been happier to be around anybody. I wouldn't trade you for all the world, kid."

The boy lets this message sink in, absorb into his small face and convert into a smile as bright as spring sunshine. He jumps up and hugs Gai's knees, and the man drops a hand onto his slick little head in appreciation. It is more rewarding a moment than any other confession of Gai's life.

But then Lee steps back, and catches his sensei's eyes: "Good. 'Cause now I want a kitten, please."

* * *

**A/N: You KNOW Lee would name it that. Face it. XD Woo-hoo- I made a human connection out of Little Lee and a lame idea**!


	6. Asobi

**Author's Note: Yes, I know I've been gone forever... Alas, education sometimes prevails over my desire to write fanfiction. But no fear- Gai and Little Lee have returned, with a short cameo in this shot by my imaginary OC, Suzuki! Enjoy the Green Beastiness!**

* * *

_Seven - Playdate_

"I want to have a friend over."

Gai is amused and perturbed by the way Lee makes every declaration; he is always so grave, and looks with piercing vulnerability at Gai while keeping silent in want of a reply. He's so dramatic, it really makes Gai look forward to the years when hormones will add onto this trait.

"Okay," he says. Barefoot on the floor, Gai is stretching his long limbs quietly. "Where did you make a friend?," he asks, expecting Lee to say at the Academy open house, which was two days ago. Gai registered him for beginning ninja classes under the merciful watch of Iruka, and the school year officially starts in a week.

"Under the steamed bun guy's cart."

"…Huh?"

"I got run over by him, and he was so sorry that he let me eat all the buns that had gotten dirty without costing anything. I saw this girl sitting on the sidewalk, so I shared with her. Now we're friends."

Grimacing, Gai unlaces his bony fingers and reached for his large feet. "Alrighty. How about tomorrow?""Sure," Lee chirps; but he didn't move once the conversation was finished, and watched Gai continue his exercises as if he had something else on his mind. When prompted, Lee cagily began:

"Well, sensei…my friend is a girl, you know."

"And?"

"You know. She might want to be my girlfriend, so I've gotta make a good unpress-un."

"_Im_pression," the man corrected, before pausing to fix his whole attention on the boy. "Aren't you a little young to be worried about finding a mate?"

"The Academy is lousy with chicks, sensei." the braided boy responded curtly, crossing his feet and tucking a hand into one pocket. "They're gonna want some of this magic, so the sooner the better."

"You've been watching the old movie channel again, I see?"

"Hep, cat," was the young Lee's response. "And if we get married, we're gonna have it in front of the steamed bun guy's cart, where we first met. Kind of sentry-mental, huh?"

"Sen_ti_mental. And just how soon do you plan on getting hitched? You're not even six yet…"

"Well, it's only our first playdate... But I already made her this ring out of Play-Doh, just in case."

"Hmm." Gai reasoned, lifting himself into position to begin a few thousand push-ups. "You wanna wear one of my bow ties? It always worked for me."

Vague quiet, as little Lee turned this offer over in his mind; in the silence Gai could hear him reach the realization that the last time Gai had had a substantial conversation with a woman was talking about pest removal with the magazine-stand lady. "No thank you, Gai-sensei," the boy finally replied.

* * *

Lee had wanted to walk to the corner and meet Suzuki, who followed the meat-bun man to the corner every afternoon. Gai agreed to this and sat down to do some paperwork for his new Jounin status, which would allow him to take on Genin pupils in the near future…if it ever got processed. By the time he'd finished one thick stack, Gai realized that Lee and his bride-to-be hadn't returned yet and started up to go find them. It wasn't a long walk; he found the pair of them sitting side by side by the building steps, gathering woodchips in a pile.

"Hey, little man- Suzuki-chan. What's shakin'?" he called to them good-naturedly. The young girl's purple hair flounced as she leapt up to watch Gai, emptying her lap of a large amount of mulch. Lee followed a moment later, setting down the two twigs he was vehemently rubbing together.

"Hi, sensei." the boy greeted, smilingly. "We found a dead bird."

"That's…sad." Gai replied.

"We're gonna have a Chinese funeral for it and everything. Can we have some money to burn, so the birdie can buy worms in Heaven?"

"Um, I'm not sure how much I'd trust either of you with cash…or fire, for that matter." Gai answered the boy. Still silent, Suzuki ducked her head and continued to gather hunks of woody material from a nearby mulch bed. Gai tried to grin at her when she came his way.

"…Well, come into the building if you guys want a snack. We've got red bean daifuku."

"Nah, red bean paste makes Suzuki throw up." Lee countered, tamping the earth firmly with his palm. His clothing was spotted with damp dirt, streaks of which decorated his face in humorous parody of Ibiki's more prominent scars. "We're gonna need a few more mourners, so we thought we'd walk down to the park and see if anybody wants to help. Would that be okay?"

"Uh, I suppose. Just be careful." Gai answered, turning on his heel and walking back into the building. Dates had gotten a lot less fun since he last went on one.

It really was too nice a day to be inside, so Gai compromised by opening the sliding door to their two by four little balcony and letting the breeze stream through while he penned some overdue mission reports. He made some tea and listened to Lee, Suzuki, and their friends file around the gravesite murmuring out of key that Scottish song that sounds like sorrow.

When the children figured out that Lee didn't have real money to burn (or real fire for that matter) they departed for parts unknown, leaving Lee and Suzuki by themselves. When they got quiet Gai went downstairs again, this time bearing two fat, sour plum rice balls. He hoped Suzuki wasn't allergic to these as well.

Lee accepted his lunch with a happy squeal, while Suzuki had to be handed hers and muttered an embarrassed 'thank you' before devouring the thing. When the onigiri disappeared, the two set off to the corner store with a dollar to buy Gai a newspaper; they never came into the apartment, and the only time Gai really heard or saw them was when he went to check on them, disconcerted by their quiet play. As far as Gai could figure, Lee and his quiet little friend were taking part in some mysterious pretend-game that consisted of collecting clovers, patting mud into cakes, and scratching lively pictures on the stucco walls with the sharpened end of a rock. The pair had an interesting conversation going:

"So we'll take these buns to the Wave Village and give them to the children, right? And then we get to fight the rogue ninja?"

"…"

"I've never been outside of Konoha, Suzuki-chan. Is Mizugakure a big village, too?"

"…"

"… That's a nice drawing. Looks like the puppy I had for one weekend!"

"…"

"Oh, it's a house? Sorry…"

The bird funeral had taken up much of the day, and the sky was growing a shade of creamy orange with the setting sun before Gai knew it. Gumming his lip, the man strained his lanky body against the patio railing and watched the steamed-bun salesman come meandering down the corner, heralding the end of the long afternoon. Gai leaned out to wave to the girl when Lee bid his buddy adieu, thanking her for keeping his little prodigy busy all day. He thought the girl looked up at him and smiled, but it was hard to tell. She helped Lee clean up their menu of mud cakes, and was gone. Lee came trotting up the stairs loudly, and appeared in the doorway a muddy, mosquito-bitten apparition. Scrambled eggs and ramen being the mainstay of the Green Beast diet, Gai was heavily engaged in the act of boiling water and asked distantly how the date had gone.

"Ummmm…Good," the boy finally summed up, after a long while of contemplation. Lee took his seat on top of the box of magazines, and began to retell the minutiae of their activities.

"So is it looking like a match made in heaven?", the man finally asked. " cause' if it is, I've got to start saving for a dowry."

Blowing the overgrown bangs from his round eyes, Lee began pulling off his dirty shoes (Nevermind that he'd already walked across the tatami with them on). "I don't know. I think I'd like Suzuki better if she talked a little more. She's just kind of…quiet. Always thinking."

"Girls can be cagy like that," Gai assured him. "She's just feeling you out. And you're only five years old- it's going to take more than a first date to tell if you're ready to spend the rest of your life with someone."

A hush fell over the room, a hush of absorption and learning that was not missed by either eyebrowed party. Finally, though, Lee rose to place his small, blue sandals next to Gai's by the door, and his small voice broke: "But if that is true, Sensei, then why did you only go on one date with Minami-san and Kurenai-san and Akira-san?"

Another one of those questions; one that Gai couldn't satisfy without remembering his own dating situation- or lack thereof.

"Because girls sometimes decide on the first date," he sighed, watching their bachelor fare come to a boil. "Especially if you wear green spandex into a restaurant." _Maybe_, Gai reflected,_ I should start hanging around food carts..._


End file.
